Romantic opera and hard rock also share harmonic features. The harmonic language of both genres is relatively straightforward and tonal. Led Zeppelin and Verdi both use the techniques of adding dissonance, and utilizing expressive tonality to add drama to their compositions.
In La Traviata, several recurring musical themes undergo transposition, a device that Wagner scholar Robert Bailey calls expressive tonality, which is the repetition or recall of a passage transposed by semitone or tone, either up or down to underscore dramatic intensification or relaxation. Similar in dramatic value are reactive shifts, which are abrupt modulations or tonicizations, depicting a direct response to a statement or thought. In Romantic opera, within many arias, the soloist is often accompanied by the orchestra. The motifs and themes sung by the soprano are repeated by the orchestral accompaniment. This may be seen in the Sempre Libera aria at 1’ 34”, as the woodwinds repeat the motif as seen in the fourth bar in the figure below.
According to Verdi scholar, Joseph Kerman, there are three types of recurring themes in Verdi’s operas: “identifying,” “recalling,” and the “tema-cardine.” Kerman asserts that “these recurring themes do more than recall or identify: they provide, in a single musical gesture, a compelling focus for the dramatic action."
The use of themes and their modulations is evident in the opera Rigoletto. Within this opera, there is a "tema-cardine" of the curse theme. It is first introduced in the opening bars of the C minor Prelude to the opera where it occurs without accompaniment, and the doubledotted rhythms are memorable. In addition, the first harmony, an enharmonically spelled dominant seventh chord on A-flat moving to a C minor chord, also becomes strongly associated with the theme seen in the figure below.
The curse returns later in Act I when Monterone curses the Duke and Rigoletto. The theme has been changed in this reiteration, as the tone is moving to D flat and the rhythms are slightly altered, but the dotted rhythms remain.
The curse affects Rigoletto greatly and he reflects on it throughout Act I, repeating the theme in A flat with a dominant seventh. The theme begins on middle C, and the line moves into a dominant seventh chord on A-flat, enharmonically the same as found in the Prelude, and then to C major before cadencing in F major.
The curse theme reappears several more times and culminates in the death of Rigoletto’s daughter, Gilda, in Act III: the fulfillment of Monterone’s words.
The curse is considered to be the central focus of the drama in Rigoletto, and the structural placement and recurrence is evidence of this.The curse theme is the tema-cardine, as its use occurs not as a reminder to the audience, but to Rigoletto as he recalls it at climactic points in the opera, including Gilda’s abduction in Act I as well as her death.
Verdi's compositions often utilize the enigmatic scale, containing elements of major, minor, and whole tone scales, in many of his compositions. A version of this scale is represented in the figure below, starting on C. Its scale is composed of the following steps: semitone, Tone and a half, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone, Semitone.
The bassist's role is important to the structure of hard rock music; the bass-line outlines the harmony of the music being performed while simultaneously indicating the rhythmic pulse. As with the rhythm guitarist, bassists may also provide backup vocals. The bass in Led Zeppelin shadows the clear tonal changes in the lead guitar. Led Zeppelin utilizes a multitude of scales in their works, including pentatonic, major, minor, and modal into their songs, akin to how Verdi used his enigmatic scale.
The figure below is an E minor pentatonic–based (E–G–A–B–D) sextuplet figure played on the top string pair. Perhaps the most famous example of this lick comes at the end of the “Stairway to Heaven” solo .
The next figure below shows how Led Zeppelin mixes triplets with straight 16ths in a hammer-on/pull-off flurry of E minor pentatonic notes, a demonstration of their use of different scales and rhythms,
In the following figure, it is clear that Jimmy Page mixes A major (A–B–C#–E–F#) and A minor (A–C–D–E–G) pentatonics in the same pattern Page uses to cap his solo.
Similar to Verdi, Led Zeppelin also uses a form of expressive tonality, as the same themes are repeated in different keys to express and portray drama in songs. These key changes may be heard in "Stairway to Heaven," as the song progresses in intensity reflected in the lyrics.
Although the exact key changes are indistinguishable in name, they are unmistakable by ear. From the beginning of the song, there is a clear key set by the guitar. At 3' 00" they key modulates away from the tonic key, seemingly adding dissonance and discomfort for the listener. Again, at 4' 00" they key modulates again and additional notes are added to the original theme. Later at 4' 50" another modulation with drum accompaniment adds to the intensity of the song. at 5' 40" another key is introduced as the tempo additionally increases in the song. The lyrics are interrupted by a guitar solo at 6' 15" lasting until 9'20" which is highly modulatory and full of virtuosity. Beginning at 9' 20" the original theme comes back in another key, but is predominantly composed of chords, and not the arpeggios of the original theme in the beginning of the song. The final key is played at 10' 00" as the song comes to a close, the guitar does not return to the tonic key and the song closes with a vocal fade.
The modulations in "Stairway to Heaven" are accentuated by the repetition of the original guitar theme, making this song similar to the opera, Rigoletto, in that the main theme is repeated in different keys to add drama and tell a story.
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